**Update on lethargic, panting chicken with diarrhea**

[loftygoals]

My chicken died tonight. I wanted to share and wasn't sure how to flag my previous thread. She waxed and waned for 3 days but was always lethargic, eating less, only passing urates and then panting continued...and got worse. I did electrolytes, Vet RX, Nutridrench, oats soaked in water, etc...I finally called an avian vet (I am a veterinarian but a small animal vet). They couldn't see me until Monday (it was Thursday). Her abdomen felt full, swollen and larger than normal. I tapped it and got fluid. Took x rays and showed fluid. Diagnosed peritonitis...treated her with antibiotics and anti inflammatories...she died 3 hours later. I did an autopsy on her (I've never done an autopsy while I was crying in my 20 years of being a vet). Lots of egg yolk colored adhesions in her intestines...I suppose it was egg yolk peritonits. She was only 18 weeks and had been laying double yoked eggs. I'm sad and wanted to update all in case they run across similar symptoms.

 

[Pamzie]

Hello. I am just sorry to read about your little chick. How sad
Maybe you can help me. I have a Cayuga duck who is about 8 weeks old. He seems lethargic but is still happy to eat and drink. I also noticed that he has one red eye. It isn't an infection but looks more like when you take a picture and the camera flash makes your eye look red, but it looks like the entire iris not just the pupil.

 

[rebrascora]

So sorry to hear about Liquorice. It sounds like she had been laying internally for some time.... not necessarily EYP.... many yolks can get deposited into the abdominal cavity without infection (EYP) setting in.... the yolks will normally be discoloured and start to stink if there is infection and the hens abdomen starts to look dark. Often it is the sheer mass and pressure of them that puts the respiratory, circulatory and digestive systems under duress until organ failure occurs. Unfortunately internal laying is all to common in chickens and draining the resulting fluid can give almost instant relief or cause the blood pressure to drop dangerously low.
Long term there is not much that can be done other than repeated draining, although superlorin implants every 3-6months prevent the problem escalating and can allow the hen a reasonable quality of life provided an infection (EYP) doesn't set in.

Out of interest, did you take any photos of the necropsy and if so, would you mind sharing them and the xrays so that we can all possibly learn from them. There are a few threads where we share necropsy results/photos and discuss possible diagnosis, if you could post them there.... I will include a link below

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...-contains-xxx-graphic-necropsy-photos.823961/

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I'm sorry for your loss
Thank you for sharing with us.

 

[biophiliac]

Sorry for your loss and thank you for sharing.

 

[loftygoals]

Hi there,
No, I did not take necropsy photos...I was too upset and pretty much doing it while I cried...sorry...
Also, yes, maybe she was laying internally...but she was only 18 weeks old...and had just started laying...thanks all for the thoughts...it was really sad...and I didn't realize how much I would miss her...